Simon Mayr Choir, Concerto de Bassus, Franz Hauk – Mayr: Messa solenne in D Minor (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:35:50 minutes | 1,71 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Johann Simon Mayr’s music stands at the interface between the classical and romantic periods. The expressive lyrical qualities in his religious music reflect a career in which he composed almost 70 operas. The Messa solenne is in the Italian tradition of the Messa concertata and contains the full stem movement – a rarity in Mayr’s oeuvre in this genre. The polyphonic sections of the work left a particularly lasting impression on churchgoers of the time, as Mayr’s first biographer Girolamo Calvi attests, who wrote enthusiastically about the “exquisite vocal music” and the “profoundly exciting” virtuosity of this work – qualities that remained hidden for almost 200 years.
Read moreSimon Mayr Choir, Concerto de Bassus & Franz Hauk – Mayr: Messa di gloria in E Minor & Messa di gloria in F Minor (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:03 minutes | 2,59 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Mayr’s Masses were in demand across Europe, and their composition is rooted in the Italian tradition of the “messa concertata” which demands division into separate vocal numbers. The Mass in E minor has long been recognised as an outstanding example of Mayr’s late style, with its polyphonic mastery and dialogues between singers and concertante solo instruments being exceptionally convincing. The Mass in F minor evokes both joy and deep melancholy, though accompanied, as always, by Mayr’s notable gift for melodic beauty.
Read moreConcerto de Bassus – Mayr: Elena (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:30:56 minutes | 2,79 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
During the 1813-14 carnival season in Naples, Simon Mayr wrote a much-admired opera semiseria called Elena. The post-revolutionary Napoleonic era saw great enthusiasm for the rescue opera genre and Elena is a perfect example, in which a complex plot, based on French models, sees an innocent falsely accused of a capital offence. Mayr’s subtle accommodation of Neapolitan opera and Viennese Classicism ensures a series of choruses and recitatives that drive the action forward, punctuated with arias, romances, ensembles, lyric richness and moments of witty buffo color.
Read moreConcerto de Bassus – Mayr: Alfredo il grande (Original 1819 Milan Version) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:36:14 minutes | 2,73 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Naxos
Medieval England exerted a strong influence on Johann Simon Mayr, especially during his final proto-Romantic period. Alfredo il Grande was to be one of his last operas, with a narrative that takes us to a land under threat of war with the Vikings. Escaping capture, Alfred the Great travels incognito, ultimately defeating the enemy and rescuing his beloved Alsvita. With its grandiose choruses and sensuous melodies, this opera was conceived on a monumental scale and proved both impressive at its premiere and influential on the next generation of bel canto composers, making a substantial contribution to the development of the melodramma romantico.
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